To those about to chag, I salute you

During and just after college, I was on a path of taking on more observance. I had cut out obvious treif from my diet during my junior year at Ohio State. When I first moved to New York City after graduating I had from just come off my first year of having a kosher kitchen in my senior-year apartment. Within a few months NYC living, I had given up non-kosher meat altogether. Shabbat was taking on a larger role in my life, and I was enjoyed lolling about with my rabbinical and cantorial student friends (hi Charlie, hi Jamie!) all Saturday afternoon and perfecting the art of the Shabbat nap.

Then I met DB, and my upward path plateaued. He was all for the Shabbat nap, but the keeping of Shabbat rules never occurred to him, so we went to museums and craft fairs and out for brunch on Saturdays. I never objected and any sprout of an idea to keep Shabbat went by the new-boyfriend wayside. And the keeping of kashrut? That came very slowly to him also (and I do realize an occasional chicken parm sandwich calls his name loud and strong), but now it’s so ingrained that he was surprised when a friend had a non-kosher bat mitzvah party with some very non-kosher pass-arounds.

All that preamble is to say: for my friends and family and acquaintances who are shomer Shabbat and holidays, I salute you. It was the leap I never made. I am proud that you find meaning in it. I like a slowed-down holiday, but those two-day – and sometimes three-day when they touch Shabbat at one end – chagim with no lights or electronics can feel like molasses to those of us not used to them, and not in the culture of it (being with others talking, eating, and playing board games really helps). And with Passover and Sukkot, you get a double dose in one week! So enjoy your Pesadik cholent (is there such a creature?) and I’ll see you on the other side, eating pasta with a garlic bread chaser on Saturday night!